Given that:(1) cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death worldwide; (2) Dilated cardiomyopathy is the leading cause of Heart failure; (3) the raise of death rate, due to cardiovascular disease, has increased from 12.3 million in 1990 to 17.3 million in 2013; (4) 13% of cardiovascular disease occur due to uncontrolled high blood pressure; (5) in India, in 2004, 14.6 lakhs deaths (14% of total deaths) were due to ischemic heart disease; (6) 85% of people over 80 years are susceptible to cardiovascular diseases; (7) the global economic cost spent in the treatment of cardiovascular disease in 2011 was little more than 10 billion US dollars; (8) the death due to cardiovascular disease is higher in low-to-middle income countries compared to developed countries; and (9) an alarming number of people, such as 230 lakhs people, will die from cardiovascular diseases each year by 2030, there is an urgent need to find: (i) a cure to diseases, as mentioned above, leading to cardiovascular disease; (ii) a way to induce regeneration of adult cardiomyocytes that were lost in Myocardial patients; (iii) a cheaper alternative to the existing expensive drugs; and (iv) a side-effect-free Natural product-based drug.

From research findings to therapeutic opportunity:

This study suggests, for the first time, that Low-intensity extracorporeal shock wave therapy, by increasing the expression of its target genes, it may suppress the expression of tumor suppressor and the ageing marker INK4a/p16 (figure 1).

Based on this finding, physicians/cardiologists may consider adapting Low-intensity extracorporeal shock wave therapy(figure 1) in the treatment of Dilated cardiomyopathy and ageing-associated cardiac dysfunction.